


Stars In Your Eyes

by TotallyHuman



Series: The Draal/Jim One [1]
Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Bonding, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 23:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9262994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotallyHuman/pseuds/TotallyHuman
Summary: After some training, Draal and Jim find some more enjoyment in each others company.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still working on their characterization, so I apologize if they potentially seem ooc. Also, I'm absolutely a shipping monster knee deep in this, it's gonna happen and I'm gonna write it.

Jim hits the ground with an ‘ _oof_.’ His armor immediately evaporates in wisps of blue light and the amulet tumbles off Jim’s chest to land on the grass just above his shoulder. “Alright, alright, I yield for tonight.”

“ _Hmph_ , you’re actually improving,” asserts Draal flatly from where he stands in front of the teenager. “Minimally.” A large, thin lipped smile presses onto Draal’s lips.

An indignant breath puffs from Jim’s cheeks and he remains in place, sprawled on the grass under the night sky and unmoving.

Inquisitive. “Are you incapacitated?” Asks Draal.

“Nope,” replies Jim curtley. “As if you’d ever take me that seriously in a fight _now_.” Jim rambles, as if the implications behind the statement are obvious. Draal stares at him and Jim’s eyes flicker over to him, receiving the silent request for elaboration. “You train me, you don’t really fight me. You’d never push hard enough to _actually_ fight me, y’know. The only time you ever did that was in our duel in the Trollmarket.”

Draal’s expression hardens with critical comprehension. Jim Lake isn’t wrong. There’s been little to no force in Draal’s mock attacks, only enough pressure to put the boy on edge. To test him and show how many weaknesses he has and how they can be exploited. He has a great many vulnerabilities, even with armor. They’re in his stance, the grip of the blade in his hands, the way he pounces on any open chance without the forethought of a trained swordsman who’s practiced strategy - like Draal.

“This works better,” Draal replies instead of reciting any of that aloud. He’ll have time to berate and lecture Jim when he’s fresh faced and ready to fight again tomorrow night. Right now they’ve been at it for an exceptionally long period of time, given Jim does not have his so called ‘school’ the following day. Not that he learns _real_ necessities and skills, from the descriptions Draal’s heard of it.

Jim smiles politely, propping the upper half of his body up on his elbows. “Yeah, I know that too. Couldn’t ask for a better sparring partner though, don’t worry.” Then Jim abruptly lets himself drop onto his back once again, eyes averted to the sky. Draal can’t help but raise his brow at the oddity of his behavior, regardless of the fact that most of Jim Lake’s behavior is peculiar. A thin arm raises to jab a finger at the sky. Draal abruptly tenses and cocks his head upwards to follow the direction, wary for enemies.

Jim laughs, apparently having turned his head to look at Draal again and catching his reaction, “No, no. It’s not anyone.” Draal relaxes and gives a stressed look to Jim for the trick. It wasn’t intentional but Draal feels irritation itching at him for falling for it nonetheless, but tamps down the emotion. “It’s, uh, the big dipper.” A pause, “Guess you wouldn’t really know constellations, huh?”

Draal makes a frustrated noise for not knowing, staring down at Jim. Jim sits up, palms pressed into the grass. “I can show you. Here - “ one hand pats the ground beside Jim, inviting Draal. It is tempting.

“What is the purpose, then?” Draal questions, not quite enthralled in the concept of Jim being the teacher.

Although, Draal has nothing to lose by it.

“Just a bit of recreational time usage. What, you’ve never taken a break before?”

Draal exhales dismissively. “I’ve spent time… ‘recreationally.’” The last word that mimics Jim’s vocabulary teeters with a sense of teasing camaraderie. Draal knows he has - actually spent time with friends like any other normal trolls outside of their work and obligations, that is - but no longer cares to dwell on the times he’s had beneath the human world, in his homeland. It all makes him homesick.

There’s a couple seconds of silence shared between him and Jim Lake before Draal is trudging over and settling onto the ground where Jim indicated.

Jim smiles with satisfaction at Draal’s acquiescence. “Okay. So if you just - oh, well, no laying on your back for you, huh?” Jim chuckles as Draal returns a fauxly bemused expression before Jim continues with his explanation. “Just, mmh… lean back a little and look at the sky.”

Jim shows Draal to follow the point of his hand and tries, very hard, to point out specific shining lights. Draal can’t follow his emphasis for a long time, to the brink of frustration that drives an urge to find respite in the basement of Jim Lakes home once more to spare the embarrassment. But soon after, thanks to some small amount of patience residing in Draal - the same kind that allows him to train Jim, probably - he thinks he spots it. The several stars in the simple but noticeable picture of a ‘dipper.’

“It’d be easier on your back, I think. But it still works.” Jim says, side eyeing Draal. He side eyes the human back, reflecting the faint smile. There is a bonding sentiment to the two of them trading this: what they can. Small things. Actions. Allegiance. Stars.

“Hey,” Jim squeaks, a hopeful glint in his eye, “could I… touch the spikes? On your back.”

Draal glares at Jim for a long moment. To his credit, Jim Lake holds the gaze strongly, save for a spare swallow that indicates doubt or insecurity. And then this: “Yes,” Draal gives in a lame tone, not trying to reveal his own slight curiosity in how it might appeal to Jim. _Why_.

An enthused expression lights up Jim’s features and he scoots away and around Draal. Draal eyes the wooden fence of the backyard intensely as he waits and focuses. There aren't exactly nerves in the spikes. Unless Jim applied pressure near the base of them, Draal wouldn’t feel much of anything. But it was interesting nonetheless. By now, Draal assumes Jim must be touching them since he hears a hushed, “ _Woah_ ,” riding a low exhale. His eyes linger on the amulet on the ground yet beside Draal’s thigh before he tears them away wistfully. A few seconds later and Draal does, in fact, feel that applied pressure at the base of one of the spines at the center of his back. He tosses an obscured look over he shoulder, but can only catch a small glimpse of Jim Lakes head behind him. Scrutinizing Draal’s body. It was a laughable situation.

Suddenly there is a heavier weight on Draal’s back.

“What are you doing? Careful, fleshbag - “ Draal barks as he realizes the Jim has climbed onto the spines of his back.

“Sorry. Don’t mean to crush you. Thought it’d be kinda funny,” Jim’s voice chirrups over the top of Draal’s head as he heaves with false exasperation. “Kinda cool,” Jim tacks on like Draal won’t notice. In honesty, any annoyance Draal truly feels is faint at best. For some reason Jim settling onto his back is, while weird, very… nice. Almost like a massage, but better.

It is doubly laughable: the new Trollhunter, one that must be better than Draal - since he’s been chosen, since he’s defeated Draal and shown a mercy, however dishonorable, Draal isn’t sure he would have before knowing the human - is resting on his back. Curling up on Draal like some small symbiotic pest.

“Hah. You weigh but the equivalent of a sack of pebbles. Like a little rag doll.”

“Hey!” Jim says with petulant offense. “Alright, maybe there are receipts for that.” Jim relents. Draal smiles. The both of them remember their duel well then. Draal can recall tossing the human around with hyperbolic ease. Defensively: “But I’m just… naturally lithe, okay? I can’t help my body type.”

Draal bubbles with laughter beneath Jim Lake and feels a hand grab and tug at his as Jim adjusts his position to twist around, his knees dig into Draal’s shoulders. He grunts at the sensation and tilts his head as Jim leans over, inadvertently jerking Draal’s head back slightly - only because Draal doesn’t attempt to pull back against Jim’s pull as Jim finds the angle to hover his face over Draal’s. Upside down with strands of his hair falling down. “We can’t all be lumbering, humongous Troll folk who take up half the space of any given room their in. “

Yellow eyes narrow on blue. “That’s a compliment. Did you mean for it to be?”

Jim looks away, pondering. “Sure thing, Draal. A compliment,” it’s a genuine statement that pangs against a string in Draal’s chest. Jim pulls his face away and returns to sitting on Draal’s back, his hands pressing and pushing on until spikes until he finds a working position to sit in, hardly conscientious. One of the many - very miniscule - ways that Jim challenges him passively. Draal will return the favor eventually.

The both of them go stagnant, turning their attention back to the catalyst for this soft moment of friendship building between them: the sky. Draal mentally tracers the constellation over and over in his mind.

“I can show you more, if you want.” Jim offers gently after a dozen quiet minutes. “Constellations.”

  
Draal smiles inwardly. The kind of smile he might be able to repeat to Jim Lake's face with a little more time.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're into this ship and wanna send me prompts - nsfw or not - I'm totally down. You can drop them in the comments or send them to @galaxynoxious.tumblr.com


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